Biography

Gallya Gannot, a program director in the Initiatives & Consortium-Wide Activities Section of the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program Branch within NCATS’ Division of Clinical Innovation, oversees and provides programmatic direction/management for several CTSA Program institutions. Between 2015 and 2020, when she joined DCI, Gannot directed the Clinical Research and Clinical Technologies and the HIV/AIDS and Oral Health Research programs at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR). She provided leadership and scientific expertise in planning and implementing NIDCR-supported translational and clinical studies and activities. She also served as the NIDCR NIH AIDS coordinator for all trans-NIH AIDS activities.

Gannot earned her D.M.D. at Tel-Aviv University (TAU) in Israel in 1990 and completed her three-year post-dental fellowship in the intramural Sjogren’s syndrome research laboratory at the National Institute of Dental Research (NIDR, which later became NIDCR), studying immune-mediated exocrine damage in salivary gland cell lines.

Gannot earned her Ph.D. in immunology and microbiology from TAU in 2002 and later went on to complete a five-year postdoctoral fellowship at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). During this time, while working in the Laboratory of Pathology, Gannot studied immune mechanisms in prostate cancer and developed new techniques for multiplex molecular analysis. She was one of the first researchers to apply laser capture microdissection technology in clinical research.

After completing her postdoctoral studies at NCI, Gannot co-founded and managed a startup biotechnology company that developed a device capable of identifying microorganisms in a microbiology laboratory.

Professional Interests

Gannot is a strong advocate for translational research and, specifically, for the acceleration of basic tools and technologies into clinical care.